Moulin Rouge
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Claude Nollier, José Ferrer, Katherine Kath, Suzanne Flon, Zsa Zsa GaborBrand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 119 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-06-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Moulin Rouge
Movie Review: Elegantly Debauched Life, Whimsically Portrayed Death
Summary: 5 Stars
Through John Huston's directorial talents, the colors of Toulouse-Lautrec's palette are duly celebrated as he recreates the night life of fin-de-ciecle Paris.
Our story begins at the famous nightclub in 1890, the year after its opening, where can-can girls and a few professinal male dancers compete for customers' attentions and occassionally brawl with each other.
Serenely sitting at a table sipping cognac and sketching the scene is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the physically deformed son of a noble family, whose condition causes him to empathize with societal outcastes,played with all the elegance of the nobility by Jose Ferrer, who, in a dual role, also portrays the artist's father.
Before the last can-can of the evening, the raucous behavior of those on the dance floor is broken up by the appearance of Jane Avril(the always-exquisite Zsa-Zsa Gabor), who sings a ballad that sounds as hopeful as it is melancholy. Muriel Smith, who plays the exotic Aicha, provided Gabor's singing voice.One inaccuracy of the film is that Avril was the only dancer of the Moulin Rouge allowed to wear colored underwear.
As the artist walks home down the dark, foreboding streets, fending off a potential pickpocket, and passing by one lady of the night beforehand, the audience reviews his early life; once expected to carry the traditions of his ancient family into the future, fate dealt him a cruel blow when an accident( in reality, two accidents within two years) revealed a genetic condition that stunted the growth of his legs. Rejection by the girl he loved drove him to make his life elsewhere.
He saves prostitute Marie Charlet(Colette Marchand) from arrest, and shelters her, but suffers because of her ingratitude, then becomes even more unhappy when he tries to part with her. Depressed, he drinks even more heavily to the point where even his mother, Adele(Claude Nollier)encourages a reconciliation in the hope that he will not drink himself to death. But the reunion is not sucessful. In the grand tradition of artists, Toulouse-Lautrec puts all his emotion into his work, which immortalizes such Moulin Rouge regulars as the wiry, hook-nosed Valentin Le Desosse(Walter Crisham), and Louise Weber, a.k.a., "La Goulue"(Katherine Kath).
One interesting character who is absent from the story is the red-scarved insult comic, Aristide Bruant, who insulted everyone who came to the Moulin Rouge except for Henri.
Gradually, we watch Toulouse-Lautrec make innovations in art as a draftsman, and gain stature in his profession,and the character of the Moulin Rouge change from a bawdy dance hall to a more sophisticated societal club. The flighty, fliratious Jane continues to have affairs, La Goulue becomes more superficially pompous and difficult, and the King of Prussia (Theodore Bikel)purchases one of Henri's paintings. The pauses in which the artist's sketches dance across the screen are truly a feast
for the eye.
As Henri takes up with a society woman named Myriamme Hayam (Suzanne Flon), the couple observe Jane's rise in status as a stage performer, and they manage to rescue La Goulue from oblivion.
Elegant surroundings do not alter Henri's view of love or his cynical, self-deprecating humor.
After his affair with Myriamme ends, his drinking increases, and his art dealer, Maurice Joyant(Lee Montague), and his housekeeper, Madame Louet(Mary Clare) stand helplessly by. But the film politely deals only with part of what leads to his demise and does not mention syphilis, as it would if it were made today.
A tragic fall down a flight of stairs leads to the 36-year-old's return home to his family chateau to die. His mother expresses her grief, and there is a fictionalized expression of remorse from his father.... But in the mind's eye of the dying artist, the characters he knew at the outset return to bid him farewell, led by the non-speaking Black male dancer, then Le Desosse on the arm of La Goulue, who stopped fighting with Aicha....Then out of the mists of time, memory, and imagination, his beloved Jane, who bids him adieu and then must be off...Soon, Henri leaves us too, amid the viewing of one last fiery can-can by dancers waving handkerchiefs...Would that the ends of all of our lives could be that whimsical!
Summary of Moulin Rouge
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